Terrance
Terrance sat in the club and tried his best to enjoy the party and not let his new predicament with Quack mess up his night, but it was proving to be next to impossible. Even after all the drinking and all the smoking and all the other distractions, that nights events still plagued the back of his mind.
After Quack initially made the statement about Terrance signing up to whatever idea of a label he was thinking of starting, Terrance laughed it off at first. But once he saw the man was serious, he tried to explain that the move wouldn’t make any sense for him, but Quack definitely was not agreeing with anything other than what he wanted to hear. After a few minutes of going back and forth Quack pulled a move that had not only blindsided Terrnace , but had him off balance every since. Quack had pulled out the gun that Terrance had shot Yella with years ago. Terrance had never wondered what happened to the gun, but he would never have imagined that I would show back up like this. Quack had the gun wrapped inside of a large zip lock bag, which made the idea that his fingerprints were still on it very believable. He was now being black mailed and extorted by the very people he thought would support him most. He could still remember Quack’s words as though he had just stood before him and heard them moments ago.
“See I got love for you, but on my set I control everything, one way or another. So either you gon’ get down with the program and bring that money home where it’s supposed to be, or you goin’ lay down on some hard ass bunk for the next fifty two years of yo’ life,” Quack had said.
Terrance had tried to convince Quack that he was already stuck in a contract, but Quack didn’t buy it. He told him that he had been following him very closely, and he knew his last contract had been fulfilled with his last album. Then Terrance tried to tell him that he had already signed a new contract, but Quack told him he would have to buy his way out of it or else. Quack had threatened that if he didn’t have the money and a contract ready and signed in the next week, that he would be sure that some detective got a package with the gun and a suspect delivered to his desk.
All the lap dances and drugs were only providing momentary mental breaks from his situation. Terrance couldn’t decide whether or not to just go through with it or involve C-Note, who he knew had his back, and would want to protect his own best interests if nothing else. He couldn’t turn to the gang to expose Quack’s treachery because most of them feared him to the point that they would turn their backs on Terrance, or make some excuse as to how he should go along with the scheme.
“Yo’ Trigga, you good?” C-Note asked him. “You look like you spaced out in this bitch. Yo’ ass still got to hit the stage, so don’t get too tore down. You still got to put on for the home team.”
“I’m good, just some shit on my mind that happened earlier. Kind of got me preoccupied,” Terrance said. “I got it though, when the show start I’ll be ready.”
Around midnight it was time for the show to begin, and Terrance took the stage to perform some of his biggest hits. The entire crowd was rocking with him even thogh he was barely sober enough to go through his entire routine. There was a large commotion in a part of the club, and he could see that a lot of members of M’Famous’ entourage were heading in that direction. The crowd broke up a few moments later without much more confusion and Terrance finished up his show.
Coming off the stage he saw someone he couldn’t believe was there, and it made him even more uneasy. It was the girl who was at Yella’s house the day, but he couldn’t remember her name. He was sure that she had seen him on television or somewhere and knew exactly who he was. His first mind told him that Quack was behind the girl’s sudden appearance, and he now had the feeling that he was being set up to be used from the very beginning. It was no coincident that Quack had taken a sudden interest in having him tied to his set ritght around the time that word had gotten out that he had signed a recording contract, though no one could have predicted that he would have the type of success that he did. Apparently Quack had planned for just such a thing and had devised a way to control him in the event that he couldn’t cash in the way he had planned to. With the murder weapon and the girl now mysteriously showing up, Quack definitely had enough on him to carry out this threat. Terrance now felt as though he was running out of options and he only had five days or so to meet Quack’s demands. He considered approaching the girl and trying to scare her out of town, but he was sure Quack had thought of that and had someone watching her. He now hated the day he even met Quack, let alone got in the car that day. He would have to make some kind of move fast because it felt like the walls were closing in on him quickly.
As he moved through the crowd backstage on his way back to the VIP section everyone was telling him how good his performance was, but in his mind all he could see was the girl, the gun, and a prison cell. He had never even been to jail, so the thought of going to an actual prison was terrible. If he just walked away from M’Famous and did as Quack wanted all his problems would go away. But he also knew that some kind of way, Quack would try to fuck him out of as much money as he could, like Suge Knight and Diddy used to do their artists. Terrance had gotten so used to his new lifestyle that to just have it dry up seemed like a nightmare before it even happened. Is right hand man, Kain, noticed his distress as they were making their way through the hall.
“Mane is you straight? You been looking bugged out all damn day, and it ain’t the drugs ‘cause you looked the same way early today.”
The pressure on Terrance was now beginning to feel so great that he was now willing to tell his problem to his partner, which he had hoped to avoid. He didn’t want to involve anymore people than necessary in anything dealing with Quack, and though Kain wasn’t affiliated, that wouldn’t keep him from enduring whatever Quack had to dish out as retaliation for not following his wishes. Even so he pulled his friend to the side.
“Mane you remember when I left the other night? I went to holla at this nigga Quack, who put me down a few years ago, and the nigga on some foul shit,” Terrance said frustrated by his predicament.
“What could that nigga have done that bad that you letting it fuck up yo’ big party?” Kain asked.
“Look, don’t say shit to nobody, because I’m still trying to figure out how to handle this shit and I don’t need no mo’ distractions. Back when he put me down he got me to do something, and now he trying to use the shit to blackmail me. He want me to sign a contract with a record label he want to start, but this nigga ain’t got a clue how to run a label, and he want my fucking money to start the shit.”
“Damn, what could you have done that was that bad? What this nigga tryin’ to do expose a old secret?”
“Yeah, and if he do I’m going to jail for a long ass time mane, and I ain’t trying to go through that shit.”
“What the hell did you do nigga? I’ve been knowing you, and you couldn’t have done shit that bad.”
“You know the rumors that was out about me a few years ago?”
“What about you killing somebody, nigga ya’ll started that shit to boost yo’ record sales didn’t it?
“Naw, I wish that’s all it was. This nigga made me do it though. He acted like if I didn’t he was gon’ do something to me. Now this nigga show up the other night with the damn gun from way back then.”
“How you know it was the same one? The nigga might just be trying to spook you into this shit he on.”
“I can’t take the chance. Plus, it was a witness and some kind of way she ended up in here tonight. I saw her when I was on stage, and I know that nigga behind the shit.”
“So what we gon’ do?”
Terrance was happy to hear his friend say we. It made him feel like he was going to ride with him no matter what happened. He knew he would need someone on his side who wasn’t tied to either Quack or the label to help him through this. He had met Kain in the studios when they were hanging out one day. Kain was there because he was the cousin of another M’Famous artist that Terrrance was doing a feature for. The two clicked and started hanging out, and by them being around the same age they had a lot in common. Though neither could really be considered from the streets, Kain had grown up around rougher surroundings and therefore his mindset would lean more towards a street way of handling things, though that wasn’t exactly what Terrance was looking to get into right now.
“You gon’ tell C-Note them?” Kain asked.
“I really haven’t figured that part out yet. I don’t know how it will play out; you know C-Note kind of crazy. I be thinkin’ that nigga on pills or somehin’,” Terrance replied. “He came over the other night with a contract and I hesitated a lil bit. So if I come to him with this, he might think I’m trying to come up with a way to bail on him, but that ain’t the case.”
“Mane you know my cousin Debo just got out the pen. This type of shit right up his alley. I can get him to go by and try to scare the nigga or somethin’. He got plenty of niggas to ride wit ‘em too, so don’t trip ‘bout him being outnumbered. I know you said the Quack nigga affiliated, so he probably keep some do boys around.”
“Mane I don’t think trying to scare this nigga gone do nothing but make shit worse, cause then he’ll have even more reason to turn the shit over to the police. Kain I ain’t tryng to go to jail mane.”
“Mane if you talk to the right people and throw a few dollars around you can just get the nigga killed, and all this shit will go away.”
“I don’t think it wil be that easy man. His nephew in on the shit too, and ain’t no telling who else. So even if we do get the nigga killed , we won’ t get the gun back and anybody else could get it and try the same shit.”
Terrance had never really considered having anyone killed as an option. He wasn’t trying to get in any deeper than he already was and he knew the more he talked to Kain now the more he would hear plots that would get him more entangled.
“I might have to play along with this shit for awhile, cause I can’t think of nothing else,” Terrance said dejectedly.
“Bruh we got to come up with something else cause this nigga don’t know how to run no damn label, and he ain’t goin’ do nothing but pinch off you until he drag you into the ground,” Kain replied. “You can’t lay down for no nigga like this, ‘cause he just goin’ walk all over you as much as he can.”
Terrance knew that his friend’s words were true, but he didn’t feel like there was much he could do.
“Mane let’s talk bout this shit later cause it’s fuckin’ my groove up right now. Let’s get back to the party.”
The two made their way back to the VIP section where there was a bucket with three bottles of Rosẻ with fire works candles lit and sparkling all over the table.
“Yeah, this just what I need,” Terrance thought to himself as he walked up to the table, which also had a new group of women around it as well.
His hope for a little respite from his problem was short lived, because before he ever made it to the table he was tapped on his shoulder and when he turned around there was Gizzle.
“What’s up birthday boy,” Gizzle said and grabbed him in a phony embrace as thought there were still good friends.
They had been tight at one point, but Terrance had no love at all for him now that they were plotting against him.
“This party turnt the fuck up, and we gon’ keep the party going when we start putting it down for Hardhittaz Music Group. It’s gon’ be the same thing for us. Hell we’ll do it bigger than this for our number one star,” Gizzle said.
He was actually talking as though Terrance was down with the way they were handling him. They were taking him for a pushover, and so far they were doing that.
“Gizzle, you know this shit ain’t right mane,” Terrance said hoping to plead his case to the seemingly less threatening and calmer man. “I ain’t got no problem throwing ya’ll the paper to get somethin’ off the ground, but me jumping on board don’t make no sense money wise. Ya’ll don’t even know the business like that.”
“Don’t worry ‘bout what we know, cause we know enough. And what we don’t know, our new partner will fill us in on ‘cause yo’ best interest is ours too.”
“Ya’ll trying to spin me up in some shit, but remember ya’ll niggas was there too. If I go down, you know what I’m gon’ do.”
“We ain’t worried ‘bout nothing you try, ‘cause you behind the eightball not us. I know you don’ seen ol’ girl walking around here by now. She the witness and she ain’t seen nobody but you. Any other ideas you got you can keep ‘em to yo’self cause this shit only playing out one way. I don’t know what you fightin’ it fo’ no way, nigga you supposed to trying to break bread wit’ yo’ brothers first.”
“Brothers,” Terrance said incredulously. “You niggas can’t be my brothers trying some shit like this. Ya’ll probably set this shit up from the start, hoping ya’ll could leach off a nigga.”
“To tell the truth that ain’t even how it started, shit just fell in place the way it did and created the situation to where if you wasn’t on board we had a back up plan. Just bad ass luck. But nigga stop acting like you ain’t gon’ make no money, cause as long as yo’ albums sell errbody gon’ eat. You ain’t got but a few days left, so stop bullshitting and start lining shit up so you can come home cuz.”
Terrance wordlessly started at Gizzle, who continued to talk as though everything taking place was normal.
“Look mane, stop dragging this shit out. If you don’t do the right thang it’s a lose lose situation for errbody when it don’t gotta be. Fuck these niggas, you letting them eat off you and it’s cool, but when it’s the niggas who was around before any of this you want to act shitty,” Gizzle said accusingly.
Terrance couldn’t believe his audacity to try to spin the shit around on him.
“I ain’t gone hold you up birthday boy. I’mma let you get back to ya’ party, but remember, you got until Thursday to show up with the money and the contract, or Friday morning that package will be at 201 Poplar, and you’ll be on your way too,” Gizzle said. “Party up my nigga.”
Gizzle walked away and Terrance walked over to the table and picked up one of the bottles of wine, opened it, and took a big gulp before sitting it down.
“Was that the nigga there?” Kain leaned over to Terrance’s ear and asked him.
“Naw, that’s the nephew, I used to run wit that nigga a few years ago and now this thirsty shit got him tripping.”
C-Note walked back up to the table from somewhere and sat down beside Terrance.
“Aye boy you rocked that stage, but everybody can tell yo’ ass good and high,” C-Note said. “Look ya’ll ain’t know cause me and big cousin been keeping this shit on the low so word wouldn’t get out before tonight, but we got a announcement to make that’s ‘bout to have the whole industry buzzing and the streets on fire. We bout to eat like it’s Thanksgiving round this bitch.”
In Terrance’s mind all he could see was that whatever C-Note was about to say he would miss out on it stuck with whatever bullshit Quack was trying to run.
“Yeah that sound good, a nigga can always use some mo’ money,” Terrance said trying to make everthing seem normal. “But what’s the big move? Do a nigga need to get ready to duck some shots or something fucking with you?”
C-Note laughed. “Naw, not this time, but what a nigga need to get ready to do is duck all the bitches he been fucking wit’ cause it’s ‘bout to be a whole new pack of ‘em. Even better than that though niggas gon’ be needng some new safes cause the old one’s ‘bout to overflow. Speaking of that what’s up with that contract? You bring it wit’ you cause I want you on board fo’ this. You been M’Famous since day one.”